Tech to-dos for the New Year

There’s the approach that we have ‘no technology’ times in the day. It is wise to have times that give us a break from our life surrounding by screens. However, the phrasing of this could be done differently.

Let’s take an example from my personal life in this last year. I had a big moment when I realized that I always wanted to do something when I was told I couldn’t or shouldn’t. This really manifested itself with food and my sugar intake. Often, I told myself that candy was bad and it wasn’t something I could have, and I would then defy myself. And then, lightning bolt idea, I wondered if I couldn’t reverse this psychology on myself. An experiment was born.

I set an alarm every day for 1PM with the instruction to eat sugar. For the first week it was a nice treat but slowly the rebellion against myself began. The phone would get a dirty look accompanied with the thought, “I don’t really want any sugar so I’m not going to have it.”

It was a beautiful realization of self-awareness. The sugar was unwanted and so the decision was made to not have it.

This same method could be applied to technology – try setting an alarm for a time that you require yourself to play an addicting game and force yourself to do it at that time every single day. Perhaps you’ll find yourself making excuses to not have to, or maybe you’ll resent having to do it. And who knows, you might find yourself only using your phone when you have to.